Victrex and Coriolis Composites have teamed up to push the boundaries of thermoplastic unidirectional tape (TP UDT) prepreg lay-up and consolidation and improve the manufacturing efficiency of composite parts.

At the JEC World show in Paris they will jointly present the results of their efforts to address one of the aerospace industry’s key challenges: how to make composite parts at a high speed and lower processing temperatures.

Coriolis Composites and Victrex have each utilised their own specific technologies and know-how in teaming up to use an Automated Fibre Placement process using parameters that unlock the potential of Vicktrex AE 250 UDT, which could benefit engineers at the aerospace OEMs and in the tier and processor supply chain.

Specifically, the cooperation on composite process development could enable the aerospace industry to create composite parts faster and more economically.

The results of this study are unprecedented in terms of lay down speed at acceptable porosity levels for TP UD laminates, which is a decisive step towards enabling the market to scale up manufacturing and realise the benefits of TP UD tapes.

Victrex AE 250 UDT holds the potential for manufacturers to exceed speed of manufacturing of an existing TP UDT intended for the same applications.

Dr Stuart Green, Market Technology Manager for Aerospace at Victrex, said: “During the presentation, we will demonstrate how, with Vixtrex AE 250 based UDT prepreg tape, we have been able to achieve a faster lay-up speed when followed by Out of Autoclave consolidation.”

“The results of our study are a significant improvement over what we’ve seen for a similar TP UD tape.”Dr Justin Merotte, Composites Project Engineer at Coriolis Composites, said: “We developed a set of conditions that demonstrated time and energy savings, indicating the potential benefits of the deployment of AE 250 UDT composites for large scale structural aircraft parts.”

“In particular, the results showed that a significant increase in lay-up speed was possible with Victrex AE 250 UDT whilst at the same time achieving the low levels of porosity desired for in-situ consolidation.”